"This exciting new volume examines the development of market performance from Antiquity until the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Efficient market structures are agreed by most economists to serve as evidence of economic prosperity, and to be prerequisites for further economic growth....

pt. 1. Methodology -- pt. 2. Market performance in Babylonia and the Mediterranean in antiquity -- pt. 3. Market performance from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century -- pt. 4. Markets and money -- pt. 5. Long-term patterns -- pt. 6. Conclusion.

The Dutch 16th and 17th centuries were a period of unprecedented economic prosperity. Since the Dutch economy was and is very small, an important source of growth was bound to be international trade. In this paper we argue that the contributions of entrepreneurship to innovation transcend the...